A List
9/3/07

FACULTY, STAFF RECEIVE AWARDS AT SLU CONVOCATION

CANTON - St. Lawrence University faculty and staff received awards for outstanding service at Convocation, held on campus August 30, marking the start of the academic year.

Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Steven White received the J. Calvin Keene Award; Assistant Professor of Performance and Communication Arts Traci Fordham-Hernandez was given the Louis and Frances Maslow Award; and Christine Zimmerman, director of institutional research, received the John P. Taylor Award.

The Keene Award was established in 1975 and is given to a faculty member in recognition of "high standards of personal scholarship, effective teaching and moral concern." White has been selected for a Fulbright Senior Specialists project and has also been named the Frank P. Piskor Faculty Lecturer at St. Lawrence. For both projects, White will be studying ecology and literature. He is the author of the 2004 book El mundo más que humano en la poesía de Pablo Antonio Cuadao: un estudio ecocrítico ("The More-Than-Human-World in the Poetry of Pablo Antonio Cuadra: An Ecocritical Study"), presenting Cuadra's poetry from the perspective of ecocriticism, which is the study of literature in relation to the physical environment. He also edited and translated Poets of Nicaragua and Birth of the Sun: Selected Poems of Pablo Antonio Cuadra (1935-1985). A graduate of Williams College with a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, White joined the St. Lawrence faculty in 1987. He is the author of several books of poetry and has published multimedia pieces combining spoken word, music with poems and translations. In addition, White has edited and translated several volumes of poetry by authors including Rubén Darío and Federico García Lorca.

The Maslow Award goes to the faculty member who has shown "the most interest in and understanding of the education and welfare of the student body as a whole." Fordham-Hernandez earned her undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the Ph.D. in social sciences and intercultural communication, as well as a graduate certificate in women's studies, from Syracuse University. Before becoming part of the performance and communication arts faculty at St. Lawrence, she was a visiting assistant professor in the sociology department, and has also taught gender studies courses and in the First-Year Program. Fordham-Hernandez launched the Oral Communication Institute as part of the Center for Teaching and Learning on campus, raising awareness among faculty about the power of language and its effect on the classroom environment. Her current research is on cultural adaptation in American foreign exchange students.

The John P. "Jack" Taylor Distinguished Career Service Award was established in 1995 at Taylor's retirement as dining services director, recognizing distinguished service to the University by an administrator who has worked at least 12 years at St. Lawrence and who sustains the high standards of performance exemplified by Taylor. Zimmerman has been a staff member at St. Lawrence since 1993, and holds a master's degree from University of Trier, in Germany. She coordinates mandated reporting to organizations including New York State's Education Department, conducts surveys on enrollment and has co-chaired a number of projects on student engagement and assessment.

Also recognized at Convocation were faculty entered on continuing tenure: Associate Professor of English Caroline D. Breashears, Associate Professor of Geology Stephen D. Robinson, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics Michael E. Schuckers and Associate Professor of Psychology Pamela V. Thacher.

In addition, Professor of Anthropology Celia Nyamweru was recognized for promotion to the rank of full professor.

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